“Sometimes people just disappeared. They’d be gone. All kinds of stuff used to happen, stuff you wouldn’t even believe in now”.

“The jazz legend known as Pork Pie Hat has never told anyone about the horrible event he witnessed as a child in the forbidden woods known as The Backs, even though the events of that Halloween night have haunted him ever since. But Hat is sick now, nearing the end of a long slide through the depths of alcoholism and depression, and the time has come for the truth to be known about what he saw…and what he did”.

My thoughts

I received my copy of Pork Pie Hat in my June edition of The Nocturnal Readers Box. If you don’t know what this is, you can check out my unboxing posts for some more information. And you should, it is an amazing box!

Pork Pie Hat by Peter Straub – inside illustrations by Jill Bauman

Aesthetically, the book beautiful. Being a Cemetery Dance publication I would expect nothing less. The illustrations by Glen Orbik (cover) and Jill Bauman (interiors) are stunning and the quality of the binding is superb.

This is the first Peter Straub book I have read and it did not disappoint. The plot certainly is not what it seems kept me guessing right to the end. At first, I struggled to understand where the story might take me but when Hat starts recalling the events of his past things start to get very creepy and interesting.

I’ve rated Pork Pie Hat 4 stars. It’s a short but captivating read with the right balance of character insight and suspenseful twists to keep me interested. It’s worth a read and a beautiful little addition to any bookcase.